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Ordering a new, replacement SSD.

D

DWBurke811

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 10, 2011
820
1
Boca Raton, FL
So I have a 256GB Samsung 470, or I guess I should say had one. My girlfriend used my laptop(she has a 7,1 also, bit with a 2.66C2D vs. my 2.4) and she said "I want mine to be fast like yours," so rather than order her a SSD, I swapped her 320GB for the Samsung 470; I'm still on summer break for another week so I don't use my laptop all that much. So she's happy now, and I get to order a new SSD. I'm not sure what type I want to order; I'm thinking I'm going to order a WD 1TB and OWC data doubler as my media drive(plus the recent addition of 10TB of NAS :) ), and a SSD as my boot drive.

I don't think I'm going to go with another 470, it was good and all but why not try spmething new? Plus if I don't like it, I can always pull my 470 from hers and replace it with whatever new drive I order.

Anyone know about the new Kingston HyperX drives? They seem expensive, but are they worth it? Or SanDisk? I've always used them for SD/CF/FlashDries, but I know SSDs are a whole new ballgame.

I'm leaning toward a Vertex 3, but worried it's going to be a battery drain. Compared to something like an Intel 510, is the power consumption of the OCZ something worth stressing over? Like is it a 10 minute difference in battery life, or is it a hour?

Since I'm going to be throwing in the 1TB WD, I'm thinking something in the 100GB range for the SSD. The Vertex3 has price on it's side, being under $200 for 120GB? But I have no problem paying more for something "better."

I'm also going to be ordering us each 8GB of Corsair RAM, might as well upgrade both since I'll be doing a little surgery.



Thanks in advance for any help.
 
What do you fill your 10tb NAS with?:) Battery drain is something you should not need to worry about as any mechanical drive takes more power then an ssd. The sata 3 drives are faster but dont come anywhere near the reliability of a samsung 470.
 
I'm wanting to try one of these new "next-gen"(or whatever) drives. Honestly, I just want to try something new.

My girlfriend having the reliable 470 is good, her computer being stable keeps us both happy lol


As for the NAS, I have two 1TB WD MyBooks in RAID1 set to backup our laptops(right now my 320GB and her 256GB, but even when I get the 1TB optibay it will be for media so I won't have to back it up; so will still be around 500GB).

And three 3TB WDs in RAID0 for media; movies are at least 10GB(1080p .mkv BluRay rips), FLAC at half a GB per album(give or take some megs), and even photos and videos from my Nikon take up a chunk of space(14.2MP RAW + JPEG and 1080p24 .MOVs).
I plan to get three more 3TB drives to backup the media, but that's on the back burner because I want to get a Mini or even thinking a 21" iMac on a desk(maybe 10 feet from the TV) that's hard-wired to the TV(I hate having to plug in my laptop to watch a BluRay or listen to some music through my surround, and don't want an ApppleTV). I couldn't pass on the deal, so I just got a 51" 1080p Samsung plasma to replace my 37" 1080p ViewSonic LCD (which I'm currently trying to convince my girlfriend to let me wall mount in the bathroom...), so having the new TV is pushing me to finally pull the trigger on a dedicated TV Mac system. I'm kinda leaning toward getting an iMac, but not sure yet...
 
For my machine, I chose OWC's Mercury Extreme Pro 6G, 240G. It's very much on par with the Vertex 3 and has, according to some of the online sites to best it in certain areas. The drive has native TRIM support and does not require TRIM Enabler to be used.
 
alFR said:
Ignore thread derail if you like, but I'm curious - why the dislike for the ATV?
Click to expand...

No worries, I've alreay derailed it enough lol

I don't dislike the apple tv at all, even more so now that it can be jail broken. But knowing myself, I would get it and in a few days/weeks I would be thinking "I wish this was a real computer..." and would end up buying a Mac. So rather than "wasting" $85 on an AppleTv, Might as well just drop a grand on a mini or iMac(a refurb 27" is really tempting...)
 
Hyper-X said:
For my machine, I chose OWC's Mercury Extreme Pro 6G, 240G. It's very much on par with the Vertex 3 and has, according to some of the online sites to best it in certain areas. The drive has native TRIM support and does not require TRIM Enabler to be used.
Click to expand...

I looked into the OWCs, I'll have to check them out a little more. I'm also tossing the idea around of getting two ~120GB SSSs, and running them in RAID0; but that's sorta more just because I'm a nerd then anything else, as I know it makes much more sense to get a larger SSD and still have the 1TB WD platter in the optibay for media.
 
You're better off getting something like the Samsung again. Your computer is last generation and the only MacBooks that can take advantage of the "next gen" SSD architecture are the current 2011 models. Next gen SSDs are SATAIII and SATAIII is only found in the newest computers.

You could try another Samsung 470, but if you want something different you could wait until Intel cleans up their firmware mess and pick up an Intel 320. They're a fast-performing SATAII drive.

Getting anything SATAIII would be a complete waste of your money. Sorry.
 
My problem with the Samsung was, while obviously it was fast as balls, I kept thinking "well, if the 470 is this fast, I wonder how fast *X drive* is." I know the 470(and to a lesser extent, the 320) have a good track record, but since I'll have a second internal HDD I wouldn't even mind making a partition to keep a backup of the SSD if something should happen.

I know if I get a "next gen" drive it will still hook up at SATA2, but won't it still be faster than a "last gen" drive? Even though it won't be getting SATA3 speeds, shouldn't it be maxing out 3Gbps? And Vertex2 vs. 3 or 320 vs 510 isn't a ton of money(like less than $50, closer to $20), and I'm sure there has to be some other tech in the newer drives that's worth having? Or maybe not? For the same price as a 470, a 120GB Vertex 3 is looking good.
 
OWC electra 6g 120gb

Hi,
Today I ordered an OWC electra 6g 120gb Sata III ssd for my 2010 13" macbook pro. I bought this drive rather than the OWC mercury extreme 3g because of random reads and writes. Having a sandforce gen 2 controller, the drive will perform way better than any sata 2 drives out there, even on a sata II interface.
In other words, unless I copy a huge file, I will not notice ANY difference using this SSD on a sata 2 interface rather than a sata 3 interface because most day-to-day tasks consist of random reads and writes.

Cheers,
Marc
 
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